The wife of the late Roger Ailes has publicly attacked Rupert Murdoch after Tucker Carlson was abruptly sacked by Fox News last month on the heels of the conservative network settling its billion-dollar lawsuit with the Dominion Voting Systems.
Ailes was appointed by Rupert Murdoch to head Fox News when it launched in 1996 and had fallen from grace two decades later after being obliged to stand down in 2016 in the wake of several sexual harassment accusations.
“Happy Heavenly Birthday Roger Ailes,” tweeted Elizabeth Ailes, wishing her late husband, who died at the age of 77, a year after his exit from the network.
“It took you 20 years to build Fox News into the powerhouse that it was and only 6 years for the Murdochs to wreak havoc,” she wrote, weeks after Carlson and Fox News parted ways as the network agreed to pay $787.5m to Dominion to settle a defamation lawsuit over election lies amplified by the channel’s personalities.
“Rupert thought he could do your job. What a joke. He has the checkbook but could never come close to your genius. RIP.”
During his two decades at the helm, Ailes oversaw its meteoric rise – within six years of its launch, Fox News was the most-watched cable channel in the country.
Under him, Fox became a loud, controversial platform for conservative voices and causes, one that all but rejected the notion that news needed to be presented in a balanced way – despite its ‘Fair and Balanced’ slogan. The network is beloved by Republicans and became a space where big conservative figures went to make the news.
But the 20 years Ailes spent at the helm of the network ended in scandal. A lawsuit by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson claimed he had sexually harassed her. A number of other women made similar claims; among them was one of the network’s most prominent women anchors, Megyn Kelly, who later left the network for NBC.
Ailes had rejected Carlson’s allegations.
“This is a retaliatory suit for the network’s decision not to renew her contract, which was due to the fact that her disappointingly low ratings were dragging down the afternoon lineup,” he had said at the time.
“Karma is a b****” said Ms Ailes in a conversation with the Daily Beast. She said none of the scandals, including the Dominion lawsuit and Carlson’s removal, would have happened if her husband was still with the network.
“Roger never had his hand off the wheel when it came to Fox,” she told the outlet, adding that the Murdochs “weren’t born here and don’t have the same pedigree”.
Mocking the network’s chief executive Lachlan Murdoch, she said, “I was told he’s a spear fisherman, I don’t know if he spends time in the office”.
She said her husband referred to James Murdoch, Mr Murdoch’s younger son, and Lachlan as “Tweedle Dumb” and “Tweedle Dumber” respectively.
She also described Mr Murdoch as a “jealous man” who fired Ailes because he “eclipsed Rupert on the world stage”.
She said Fox parted ways with Carlson because he became too popular. “That’s what the Murdochs did to Roger, Bill O’Reilly, Eric Bolling, and they did it to Tucker,” she said. Fox News has not issued a statement on the comments.
